House Votes to Block Media Rule by the F.C.C.

[JackSpratts]

AP

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission defended regulators' recent decision to ease federal limits on how many television stations companies may own, even as the House prepared to vote to block them.

``We are confident in our decision'' FCC Chairman Michael Powell said in a written statement. ``We created enforceable rules that reflect the realities of today's media marketplace. The rules will benefit Americans by protecting localism, competition and diversity.''

The defiant remarks were issued before expected House passage of a bill derailing an FCC decision to let companies own TV stations serving up to 45 percent of the nation's viewers. The current ceiling is 35 percent.

Approval was expected despite opposition by House Republican leaders and a White House veto threat.

Powell and the two other Republicans on the five-member FCC approved the new rules on a 3-2 party-line vote on June 2.

With programming power and many billions of dollars at stake, the battle has spilled over into Congress, with the big broadcast networks pitted against smaller station owners and an array of groups from the Christian Coalition to the Consumer Federation of America.

Supporters of the FCC rule say the older, tighter limits ignore a high-tech era in which cable and satellite TV, plus the Internet, have intensified the competition they face. And they say that with even the largest networks owning less than 3 percent of the nation's 1,300 broadcast stations, the clout of the networks was being exaggerated.

Opponents of the FCC decision said it would give giant broadcast corporations too much clout, at the expense of communities and a diversity of voices.

The new FCC rules ``would make Citizen Kane look like an underachiever,'' Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said Tuesday, referring to the 1941 film about a plutocratic media magnate. ``It's too much.''

The biggest beneficiaries of the FCC's ruling would be Viacom Inc., which owns the CBS and UPN networks, and News Corp., owner of Fox. Due to mergers and acquisitions, both already exceed the 35 percent limit.

Short of support and eager to prevent FCC opponents from using a House roll call to show their strength, GOP leaders didn't even try removing the language from the bill. Instead, they said they would seek to kill it when House-Senate bargainers craft a compromise bill later this year.

Hoping to increase their power, some Republicans were seeking House members' signatures for a letter pledging to vote to sustain a veto, GOP aides said. It would take 145 lawmakers, or one-third of the House, to uphold a veto, which would be President Bush's first.

Some senators may try including similar language in the Senate version of the bill, which may not be written until the fall.
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